Various embodiments described herein relate to networks of electronic devices, and more particularly to thing-sourcing systems, devices, methods and computer program products.
Crowdsourcing is a type of participative online activity in which an individual or entity proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and number, via a flexible open call, the voluntary undertaking of a task. In crowd-sourcing, an individual communicates with a crowd-sourcing platform via a user device that is connected to a network such as the Internet. Crowdsourcing may be used to obtain needed services, ideas and/or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community.
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of physical and virtual things having embedded computer systems associated therewith that allow the things to exchange data with other entities, such as a user, operator, manufacturer, technician, analyst, etc. based on the International Telecommunication Union's Global Standards Initiative. The IoT may allow, for example, things to be sensed, monitored, and/or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, which may create more opportunities for direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and may result in improved efficiency, accuracy, and economic benefit Each thing may be uniquely identifiable through its associated embedded computing system and is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Some experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion things by 2020. The things in the IoT can refer to a wide variety of device or object types such as, but not limited to, industrial electronic devices, environmental sensors, security devices, power plant control/monitoring systems, airplane engine and flight control monitoring systems, railway control and monitoring systems, manufacturing control systems, and the like.